President Donald Trump said Monday he will “certainly look at” setting up a U.S. military base in Lithuania, one week after the country’s prime minister said the Baltic nation would welcome American service members.
Asked by a reporter about Lithuania’s invitation, the president had warm words for the country.
“They’re friends of mine; they’re great people, so we’ll certainly look at it. They are great people,” Trump said. “I know so many people in that country; they’re great people.”
Last week, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said his country is “ready to pay the bill” for a U.S. military base.
“We would definitely go for it if they’re ready, and we would ensure the best possible conditions for the troops, for the base to be established in Lithuania,” Sinkevičius said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
The offer lines up with a long-running demand from the president. Trump has consistently called on NATO allies to foot the bill for hosting U.S. troops on their soil.
The president’s comments also come as the Pentagon carries out its six-month review of U.S. military posture in Europe. The review is set to wrap up in December and is expected to shift conventional defense responsibilities to NATO allies in Europe.
Lithuania already has a growing U.S. presence. Last month, the U.S. confirmed it is sending a new rotation of service members to the country. However, the U.S. does not have a large military base inside Lithuania.
The NATO member sits less than 70 miles from mainland Russia, putting it on the front lines of the alliance’s eastern flank.
Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Center for Military and Political Power, said Monday that the Baltic states’ eagerness to host troops makes sense given their location.
“Baltic countries are understandably interested in hosting as much European and American allied military power as possible because they are closest to the Russian bear and understand it best,” Bowman said in a statement.
Bowman also cautioned against pulling American forces out of Europe without regard to conditions on the ground.
“As our Baltic allies have warned for many years, the only thing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin respects is hard power, and that is why conditions-ignoring American military withdrawals from Europe are so ill-advised, especially when we see growing Russian aggression,” he said.
Lithuania is not the only NATO ally in the region where the administration is weighing a stronger U.S. footprint. Last month, Trump announced that the U.S. is making “major progress” in establishing an Army base in Poland.
Lithuania’s willingness to cover the cost of a base could make its offer especially appealing to a president who has repeatedly pressed allies to pay for the American troops stationed in their countries.
For now, Trump has made no commitment beyond saying his administration will take a look at the proposal. But with the Pentagon’s posture review set to conclude in December, the question of where U.S. forces will be based in Europe is likely to remain front and center in the coming months.
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